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A study out Monday in the journal Current Biology found that pigeons are able to judge time and space, much the way humans and apes can. (Shutterstock/File)

Pigeons may be smarter than you think.

A study out Monday in the journal Current Biology found that pigeons are able to judge time and space, much the way humans and apes can.

The report is the latest to show that so-called lower-order animals such as birds, reptiles and fish are capable of intelligent decision-making.

"Indeed, the cognitive prowess of birds is now deemed to be ever closer to that of both human and nonhuman primates," said study author Edward Wasserman, professor of experimental psychology at the University of Iowa.

"Those avian nervous systems are capable of far greater achievements than the pejorative term 'bird brain' would suggest."

Birds were shown a computer screen on which a horizontal line appeared for either two or eight seconds.

Sometimes the line was 9.5 inches (24 centimeters) long; other times it was two inches (five centimeters).